Belt.



ANNA B. SISTEK, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

BELT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 6, 1917.

Application filed April 4, 1917. Serial No. 159,618.

To all 'whom t 'may concern:

Be it known that I, ANNA B. SISTER, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Omaha, county of Douglas, and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Belts, and have4 described the same in the following specification, illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to that class of belts which are used as female wearing apparel and which individually comprise a flexible band encircling the waist of the wearer, and a plurality of transverse ribs, secured to the band for stifl'ening. It is the main object of the invention to impart a graceful shape cand outline to the apparent figure of a wearer whose back profile is too sharply concave at the waist; to obviate all need of padding in the hollow of the back; to support from the belt an attached skirt hanging gracefully therefrom; to prevent slipping, sagging and displacement 0f the skirt and belt; to utilize the belt as a waist-band of the skirt; and at the same time to effect other useful functions, common with belts of this class. 'Io accomplish this object, I incorporate in my improved belt, as parts thereof, a band which is longer than the shortest waist'line of the wearer, and a ref inforced transverse bridge, forming a wide portion of the band and spanning, up and down, a convex portion of the back.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the best manner in which I have contemplated applying the principles of the invention, Figure l is a side elevation of a dress skirt operatively applied to an outlined display form by means of a belt which is constructed in accordance with these principles and shown in broken lines. Flg. 1s a plan o f the same belt, laid'out flat, inslde up. Fig. 3 is a like plan of the same belt in a modified form.

The belt shown in these views comprises the flexible band l, which is preferably formed of common belting fabric and provided with a plurality of terminal hooks and eyes 2, arranged in vertical lines. When operatively united by these fastenings, its circuit slightly exceeds the shortest waist line of the wearer. The belt also comprises the bridge 3, which either forms an integral part of the band, as shown in Fig. 2, or is securely united therewith by stitches, as in Fig. 3. This bridge, whose proper length depends on the shape of the wearers back, is longer from top to bottom of the belt than the vertical width of the belt at adjacent points. It is stiflened by a plurality of spaced strips 4 of covered whalebone or similar lreinforcement which are disposed transversely of the belt, and operate as girders to hold-the middle of the bridge spaced from the wearers back, at the waist line, as shown in Fig. 1. By virtue of this construction, the bridge has so much stiffness and so little deflectability that it is not conformable in shape to the curvature of the back by any stress or pressure to which it can be subjected in ordinary usage.v Accordingly it operatively'` spans, in the hollow back of the form 5 to which it is applied, an unoccupied space, which is profiled in the semblance of a crescent by the broken lines 3 and 5 in this figure. The dress skirt 6, sewed to and along the straightv upper margin of the belt, as to a waist band, hangs down slopingly therefrom without humping, and presents a graceful back line nearly straight, denoted by the same numeral 6.

I claim as my invention- 1. A belt of the specified class, comprising a flexible band of flat material integrally continuous and having a ,substantially straight` upper margin from end to end of the band, means for joining the ends of the band contactually together to render the.

belt endless in form, and a transverse bridge containing a plurality of parallel reinforcing girders terminating at the top and below the bottom of the band; this bridge being adapted to span a concave portion of the wearers back, while centrally deflected toward and spaced from the waist line. l.

2. A belt of the specified class, comprising a flexible plane band of substantially uniform vertical width throughout its entire length, means for joining' the ends of the band together as parts of an endless belt, and a reinforced plane and flexible bridge transversely aliixed to the band and located below the top level of the same, which is adaptedv at one end to press against the Wearers back above the waist line, and at manges@ the other end to press against the Wearers back below that line, While spanning the Waist and centrally spaced therefrom. l@

Witness my signature at Omaha, Nebraska, March 28, 1931.7.

ANNA. n. sieren., 

